Division of Biological Sciences, Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne VD 1015, Switzerland.
G3 (Bethesda). 2022 Mar 4;12(3). doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab453.
Glutamate is a principal neurotransmitter used extensively by the nervous systems of all vertebrate and invertebrate animals. It is primarily an excitatory neurotransmitter that has been implicated in nervous system development, as well as a myriad of brain functions from the simple transmission of information between neurons to more complex aspects of nervous system function including synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Identification of glutamatergic neurons and their sites of glutamate release are thus essential for understanding the mechanisms of neural circuit function and how information is processed to generate behavior. Here, we describe and characterize smFLAG-vGlut, a conditional marker of glutamatergic synaptic vesicles for the Drosophila model system. smFLAG-vGlut is validated for functionality, conditional expression, and specificity for glutamatergic neurons and synaptic vesicles. The utility of smFLAG-vGlut is demonstrated by glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotyping of 26 different central complex neuron types of which nine were established to be glutamatergic. This illumination of glutamate neurotransmitter usage will enhance the modeling of central complex neural circuitry and thereby our understanding of information processing by this region of the fly brain. The use of smFLAG for glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotyping and identification of glutamate release sites can be extended to any Drosophila neuron(s) represented by a binary transcription system driver.
谷氨酸是一种主要的神经递质，被所有脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的神经系统广泛使用。它主要是一种兴奋性神经递质，已被牵涉到神经系统的发育，以及从神经元之间简单的信息传递到更复杂的神经系统功能，包括突触可塑性、学习和记忆等方面的许多大脑功能。因此，鉴定谷氨酸能神经元及其谷氨酸释放部位对于理解神经网络功能的机制以及信息如何被处理以产生行为是至关重要的。在这里，我们描述并表征了 smFLAG-vGlut，这是一个用于果蝇模型系统的谷氨酸能突触小泡的条件性标记物。smFLAG-vGlut 的功能、条件表达和对谷氨酸能神经元和突触小泡的特异性得到了验证。smFLAG-vGlut 的实用性通过对 26 种不同的中央复合体神经元类型的谷氨酸能神经递质表型进行了演示，其中 9 种被确定为谷氨酸能神经元。这种对谷氨酸神经递质使用的阐明将增强中央复合体神经网络电路的建模，从而增进我们对该区域的了解。使用 smFLAG 进行谷氨酸能神经递质表型分析和鉴定谷氨酸释放部位的方法可以扩展到任何由二元转录系统驱动的果蝇神经元。
